What I Thought of the Justice League

As you may recall, I had a petty little boycott going for Batman v. Superman because of the Bum-chin Batman.

Despite this silly little fact, I was very excited about the Justice League movie because of how phenomenal Wonder Woman was in her standalone film, and because of the looming total overhaul and reinvention of Aquaman, everyone’s favourite punching bag.

And while the film definitely had everything I was expecting, there were plenty of surprises too.

Batman

First things first, I need to admit how wrong I was. I absolutely loved Ben Affleck’s Batman.

He had the perfect voice for the role, and I found that he was a much more lighthearted version of the Dark Knight. He was sort of a happy medium between Christian Bale’s unsmiling version, and the campy version from the Lego Batman games.

Now, however, I’m a little sad because there may be yet another new Batman for the upcoming Flashpoint movie. Right as I found out I liked this one.

Wonder Woman

I fell in love with Wonder Woman after her standalone earlier this year, and she definitely kept her appeal in Justice League.

Diana was everything I was expecting and more. She’s gotten a little more sass over the 100 years since her first movie, fitting herself well into the art scene of the modern world and matching wits with the best.

Of the characters in Justice League, I think she benefited best from Joss Whedon’s golden touch, even using her lasso of truth as a slight prank (or at least not stopping it from pranking on its own).

Aquaman

Aquaman had perhaps one of the biggest changes so far in DC’s history of making movies, and I have to be honest.

I loved it.

Traditionally, he’s a blond do-gooder along the lines of the wholesome Captain America, which probably contributed to his vanilla vibe.

In this version, though, Whedon gave the character a more relaxed vibe. He’s a total surfer bro; he believes in doing good for other people, but he’s as uncontrollable as the sea itself, doing what he wants and refusing to let anyone influence what he does.

He’s also not actually the leader of his people; it seems to be a bit of a prodigal son situation, as outlined by Mera (whom he doesn’t seem to get along with, let alone be married to).

With all of these changes, I’m intrigued to see how the Aquaman movie scheduled for next year will build on this new persona, and how he might be forced to grow up a little.

The Flash

Remember that time I called out DC for constantly reinventing characters?

The Flash is a perfect example of this; despite having his own TV show with several seasons, DC chose to start him from scratch as a teenager living off the grid.

His personality and overall character were very well done, but it threw me for a loop that the actor they chose to play him, Ezra Miller, is the same one who played the possessed child Credence in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I know he’s had other roles, but that was the first one I saw him in, so I had a hard time seeing him as an innocent do-gooder.

Cyborg

While he’s a great presence in Lego Batman 3, Cyborg hasn’t exactly had a huge presence in DC movies to date. He’s had a few cameos on Smallville, which showed him as a Wolverine-esque version that had all of his mechanics on the inside with no evidence showing.

He already relies very heavily on technology, but this new version gets a little twist of the supernatural. He’s also physically less human than previous iterations, which appears to be his biggest struggle throughout the film.

He had a great coming-of-age subplot in the movie, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his growth and abilities.

All in all, I think DC did a good job setting itself up with new characters to populate a new cinematic universe, but unless it keeps Whedon to help write, the persona development may stall a bit.

So there are my thoughts on the Justice League film. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?